Mask Free Me

It's been a bit jarring but this week Singapore finally lifted mandatory masking in public transport, the last vestige of the COVID era and I have to say, it’s been pretty weird to not panic every time I leave the house thinking if I have two extra masks in my bag, just in case.

Even this week, I still have my mask on on the train or on the bus and only attempt to remove it when I see that I’m the only one left on the upper deck. I’m still paranoid but I’m learning to slowly but surely easy my mask wearing! And as the days go by, more and more folks are starting to remove them, too.

I looked at the number of diary entries I tagged with the COVD-19 tag and I saw 1,046 entries. That’s almost three whole years under this and though it’s not quite gone yet — I literally had colleagues put on Slack that they’re down with COVID, the removal of mandatory masking felt like the last bit of signalling that we’re still living in this pandemic.

I’m still not super comfortable traveling the way I did before this all went down, but I’m more open now. I’m still washing my hands like crazy and disinfecting things, but I think that’s not a bad practice to take along with me. But also, I think the best lesson I learned from all of this pandemic (and I’m pretty blessed this is the blase lesson I learned, I know), is that I need to live in the present more.

The pandemic showed me that all plans are pointless and to just live in the moment and I’m glad I did. So even if we’re not wearing masks anymore (mostly), I hope I can continue to stay present and mindful and grateful for my health and my loved ones health and happiness. Because at the end of the day, the present really is all we have and I can’t take that for granted anymore even if I forget to wear my mask on the bus.